Market liquidity and mutual fund performance during financial crisis

Abstract

Market illiquidity influences mutual fund performance differently between crisis and non-crisis period. A significant drop in market liquidity makes investors panic leading to the early and large redemption. Fund managers have to liquidate the portfolio putting pressure on the asset prices, so the underperformance of mutual fund is recognized in non-crisis period. However, the result of illiquidity is different during crisis. The total effect of market illiquidity is positively related to all fund classes. This could then be interpreted as the evidence of management skills, market-timing and volatility-timing skills in fund managers to provide superior fund performance. Moreover, the further investigation on management strategy supports the evidence of manager skills in active fund to minimize the loss during the crisis.